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Tribal Religions

Among the 68 million citizens of India who are members of tribal groups, the
religious concepts, terminologies, and practices are as varied as the hundreds
of tribes, but members of these groups have one thing in common: they are under
constant pressure from the major organized religions. Some of this pressure is
intentional, as outside missionaries work among tribal groups to gain converts.
Most of the pressure, however, comes from the process of integration within a
national political and economic system that brings tribes into increasing
contact with other groups and different, prestigious belief systems. In general,
those tribes that remain geographically isolated in desert, hill, and forest
regions or on islands are able to retain their traditional cultures and
religions longer. Those tribes that make the transition away from hunting and
gathering and toward sedentary agriculture, usually as low-status laborers, find
their ancient religious forms in decay and their place filled by practices of
Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, or Buddhism.

One of the most studied tribal religions is that of the Santal of Orissa, Bihar,
and West Bengal, one of the largest tribes in India, having a population
estimated at 4.2 million. According to the 1991 census, however, only 23,645
people listed Santal as their religious belief.

According to the Santal religion, the supreme deity, who ultimately controls the
entire universe, is Thakurji. The weight of belief, however, falls on a court of
spirits (bonga ), who handle different aspects of the world and who must be
placated with prayers and offerings in order to ward off evil influences. These
spirits operate at the village, household, ancestor, and subclan level, along
with evil spirits that cause disease, and can inhabit village boundaries,
mountains, water, tigers, and the forest. A characteristic feature of the Santal
village is a sacred grove on the edge of the settlement where many spirits live
and where a series of annual festivals take place.

The most important spirit is Maran Buru (Great Mountain), who is invoked
whenever offerings are made and who instructed the first Santals in sex and
brewing of rice beer. Maran Buru's consort is the benevolent Jaher Era (Lady of
the Grove).

A yearly round of rituals connected with the agricultural cycle, along with
life-cycle rituals for birth, marriage and burial at death, involves petitions
to the spirits and offerings that include the sacrifice of animals, usually
birds. Religious leaders are male specialists in medical cures who practice
divination and witchcraft. Similar beliefs are common among other tribes of
northeast and central India such as the Kharia, Munda, and Oraon.

Smaller and more isolated tribes often demonstrate less articulated
classification systems of the spiritual hierarchy, described as animism or a
generalized worship of spiritual energies connected with locations, activities,
and social groups. Religious concepts are intricately entwined with ideas about
nature and interaction with local ecological systems. As in Santal religion,
religious specialists are drawn from the village or family and serve a wide
range of spiritual functions that focus on placating potentially dangerous
spirits and coordinating rituals.

Unlike the Santal, who have a large population long accustomed to agriculture
and a distinguished history of resistance to outsiders, many smaller tribal
groups are quite sensitive to ecological degradation caused by modernization,
and their unique religious beliefs are under constant threat. Even among the
Santal, there are 300,000 Christians who are alienated from traditional
festivals, although even among converts the belief in the spirits remains
strong. Among the Munda and Oraon in Bihar, about 25 percent of the population
are Christians. Among the Kharia of Bihar (population about 130,000), about 60
percent are Christians, but all are heavily influenced by Hindu concepts of
major deities and the annual Hindu cycle of festivals. Tribal groups in the
Himalayas were similarly affected by both Hinduism and Buddhism in the late
twentieth century. Even the small hunting-and-gathering groups in the union
territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands have been under severe pressure because
of immigration to this area and the resulting reduction of their hunting area.